when life gives you lace for brains, blog about it

Monthly Archives: November 2013

i’ve been working on response to my mother since i told her a couple of weeks ago that i would make other plans for thanksgiving. but how do you tell your mother that you aren’t giving her the silent treatment, that instead you are trialing cutting her completely out of your life? i keep hearing a refrain from the gawler retreat in my head, the one about putting all of the people in your life that are your critics, your naysayers, your negative nancies onto a figurative bus and driving it off a figurative cliff. but how does one do that to thier family without feeling like you are betraying them. like you are breaking a promise? and so i have not put out any sort of response.

the silence so far feels right– its a relief to not have my hopes dashed over and over again. to not be rejected anymore. to not yearn for a relationship i will never have. but that doesn’t mean it isn’t painful. when i was in school i thought that once i got my license and a good job i could help my family. i could pay for the house repairs that my mom needs, hire her a dog walker, take her on trips. i could use my skills to facilitate family discussions to address things like my brother’s drug addiction and my sister’s chronic pain and psych issues. i could help repair some of our broken past so that we could be a family again.

i sit here this holiday weekend thinking to myself “there is still time, i can call her and make plans to see her for the holiday.” but the truth is, i would just be caving in to my guilt, my sadness, my aching desire to have a cohesive loving family. and if i did that it wouldn’t change anything. i would still be disappointed every time she didn’t call when she promised she would, every time she flaked out of milestones a mother should want to share with her daughter, every time it was clear that avoiding me was easier than being honest with me.

i can’t make sense of it and maybe that’s the part that has me turning in circles. i am her only child who is somewhat successful. i am her only child who is gainfully employed. yet, it seems that the better i do the more she rejects me. i have questioned myself over and over in my head when i am quiet. what else can i do? am i sure that there is nothing left? should i call her, she did get sunday off (out of guilt and motivated only by my declaration that i was done waiting for her to call me back and would be making other plans)? am i sure that i am not just angry and giving her the silent treatment?

i am without a doubt angry but more than that i’m at a loss. what is left of this relationship? a long time ago i learned that the only way i could forge a relationship was to let go of expectations of what a mother is “supposed” to be and face the reality of what is. but she does not want or is not capable of what i want.

that’s what this thanksgiving helped me realize. i should be thankful, but i’m devastated instead.